Short-Sightedness © 08 Barry Gardner

A misty morning cold and bright
Chased off the bleakness of the night
Revealing a new December day
To those who slithered or wondered,
Flew or crawled around the river bank
Where he, lonely, rambled among briar and bramble

Yet knowing it made little sense
He vainly clung to the pretence
That still somehow he’d find the one
His life to share, alas -
He knew not when or where

Till sauntering on and so forlorn
His jacket caught upon a thorn
Then disentangling in the haze he realised
That on such days a wondrous beauty there reveals
Enhanced beneath God’s heavenly shroud.

He’s surveyed scenery from afar before
And often stood aghast
It’s splendour masking nearby treasures
Thus dismissed too fast
Like the power of the gossamer wing,
The wonder of the fin and feather
And the intricate forms of flora and fauna
Like the powerful kaleidoscope of colour
And the multitudinous shapes and structures
of all living things
Like the existential coalescence
of animal, vegetable and mineral

‘Cos at times we look too far and wide
And sometimes even strain our eyes
To see what’s on the other side
Of hedge or stream
When fog descends we should instead
Indulge in its capacity
To clarify close tapestry
Not wonder, perchance to dream

‘Twas at this point thus prompted
By the vagaries of weather
Our lovelorn rambler in a flash
Twinned sight and plight together
So too it is with love he then perceived
Too long some chase their fantasies
Remaining blindly oblivious
To the patently obvious -
The magical complexity of emotion seemingly
Constrained by boxes to be ticked
Its enchantment imprisoned gridlike
Its comfort suppressed, its grace unrecognised

With soul now free and enlightened
By such abject visibility
His mind, as with his eyes
Acknowledging this late acceptance
Our loner sensed his prospects soar
Scurrying home in haste - no time to waste
He proposed to the woman next door

(She listened intently then gave a scoff
Before telling him to bugger off)